Current events of 17 February 2009 (2009-02-17) (Tuesday) edit history watch

United States President Barack Obama authorizes the deployment of 12,000 more soldiers into the Afghanistan War. (CNN) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges Stanford Financial Group Chairman Allen Stanford with fraud. (BBC) British lawyer David Mills is sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for accepting a £400,000 bribe from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. (BBC) Walter Veltroni resigns as Secretary of Italy's Democratic Party. (BBC) Legal charges against The Pirate Bay are amended. (The Local) Late 2000s recession in the Americas: U.S. President Obama signs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in Denver, Colorado. (CNN) General Motors and Chrysler inform the U.S. federal government that they will need additional loans of $21.6 billion. (CNN) Shōichi Nakagawa will resign as Japan's Minister of Finance after the National Diet approves a budget in April. (AP via Google News) California will lay off 20,000 government workers, due to the State Legislature's failure to pass a budget. (Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Japan to deliberate the global economic crisis and international security. (Sky News) Former Khmer Rouge leader Kang Kek Iew stands trial before the Extraordinary Chambers in Cambodia. (CNN) Irish Nationwide Chairman Michael Walsh resigns over his involvement in questionable loan arrangements with Anglo Irish Bank. (RTÉ) Fifty people are detained in Guadeloupe after general strikes escalate into rioting. (International Herald Tribune)